PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Triple-listed gold miner Newcrest Mining has reported an initial measured and indicated mineral resource of 980-million tonnes, grading 0.41 g/t gold and 0.38% copper for 13-million ounces of contained gold and 3.7-million tonnes of contained copper for its Red Chris operation, in British Columbia.
“The announcement of our initial mineral resource estimate marks another milestone in our transformation of Red Chris,” said Newcrest MD and CEO Sandeep Biswas.
Since becoming operator of the Red Chris mine in August of 2019, Newcrest has embarked on an extensive work programme to define the potential of block cave mining beneath the existing openpit operations.
“We remain on track to release the findings of our block cave prefeasibility study by the end of September and continue to evaluate a number of early mining options which could enable an acceleration of cash flows prior to the development of a block cave,” Biswas said on Wednesday.
Some 310-million tonnes of the measured and indicated mineral resource estimate is classified as openpit resource, with 670-million tonnes classified as underground.
A further 190-million tonnes of inferred resources, grading 0.31 g/t gold and 0.30% copper, for 1.9-million ounces of gold and 0.57-million tonnes of copper, have also been defined.
Newcrest noted that growth drilling to further define inferred mineral resources for bulk extractable underground mining options was currently under way.
The miner in February this year approved a C$135-million investment at Red Chris, funding the construction of the box-cut for an exploration decline. Work on the exploration decline and associated infrastructure is expected to follow on from the completion of the box-cut and will be subject to further regulatory approvals.